Staying Behind
by WillyFourEyes
Summary: Not everyone gets called to the frontlines in war. Though Dorothea wants desperately for the fighting to end soon and Shamir wants to get back out on the battlefield to show off her skills, the two young women choose to make the most of their time together at Garreg Mach. [AU, war phase, no specific route, Dorothea/Shamir, contains some NSFW content]
1. Watch This!

Mornings at the Garreg Mach monastery were as tense as ever now that the war had gone into full swing. The three house lords - Edelgard of the Black Eagles, Dimitri of the Blue Lions, and Claude of the Golden Deer - had grown up and succeeded their parents as the rulers of their home nations. There was a sense of emptiness around the monastery as the newly crowned monarchs and the students they once led were all full-grown warriors fighting against an unspecified enemy that boasted pockets of soldiers, thieves, and dark sorcerers in every corner of Fodlan. Even with so many enemies to fight, it was terribly inconvenient for them to send _all_ of their best generals out onto the battlefield at once. Those that weren't chosen to fight on the front lines looked for safety wherever they could find it, hoping that the next inn they rested at wouldn't be their last.

Dorothea, a commoner from the Black Eagle house that represented what was once known as the Adrestian Empire, didn't really mind. As long as she was at Garreg Mach, she would be away from all of the death and the destruction. The sword she wielded would be a tool to entertain, not to eviscerate. Her magical lightning would be a trick to astonish, not to annihilate. She just needed to spend a little time each day practicing the right movements.

Every morning after breakfast, Dorothea would visit the training grounds, pretending that she would sharpen her skills for when the Emperor decided it would be her turn to go out to battle. For now, she was waving her sword around in the air, not even remotely close to any of the practice dummies, playing to an audience of one.

"Hey, Dorothea...the dummies are over there."

Shamir walked into the room, her longbow draped across her chest and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back. Unlike the songstress in red, Shamir looked genuinely ready to train. She wasn't attached to any of the houses, so she would fight for whichever side came calling - Empire, Kingdom, Alliance, or Church - as long as they paid well and things got a little less chaotic. Not being out on the battlefield made her worry that her archery skills were getting rusty.

"Hi, Shamir," said Dorothea. "Need something?"

"Not really. I think you already know why I'm here," said Shamir. "I was wondering what _you_ were doing here. I'm not used to seeing you in the training area."

"Oh, you know...working on my dancing."

Shamir raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "With a sword?"

"Well, yeah. When I won the White Heron Cup, they gave me a certificate to become an official dancer. Sword training was part of the package."

Shamir smirked as she thought back to five years before the start of the war, just a few weeks before the grand Garreg Mach ball. Dorothea was selected to represent the Black Eagles in the annual ballroom dance competition, and impressed the judges with her grace, beauty, and coordination on the dance floor. "It was a long time ago," she said, "but I can hardly forget. It's good to see that you're still working on it."

"Thank you! I kind of like the idea of being a sword dancer. Maybe when it becomes peaceful again, I might consider a career change."

"Oh yeah? What did you use to do before coming to Garreg Mach?"

"I was an opera singer."

"Really? They don't have opera houses where I come from."

"That's too bad. They're all the rage in the capital."

"Maybe I'll go see one someday...see what they're all about."

Dorothea took a break from her sword dancing and stepped aside to watch Shamir take a few shots at one of the targets. Her first arrow struck the dummy in the head, and the second one hit it square in the chest. Shamir had practiced those shots hundreds of times before. She could never pull that combination off on moving targets...not unless they were really big.

"Amazing!" said Dorothea. "I don't think I could ever do that well with a bow."

"It's easy once you get used to it," said Shamir as she lowered her bow. "The only thing I hate about it is how my hands feel after a battle."

"Is that why you're wearing those gloves?"

"Yeah. They help keep the calluses at bay, but only so much. I've had to visit the infirmary a few times to 'borrow' some salves for my hands."

Dorothea looked at Shamir's gloved hands and didn't notice any calluses on her fingers. She admitted that her medical knowledge wasn't nearly as good as Manuela's, so there may have been some other underlying medical issue she wasn't able to detect. "Sorry...should I have asked to look at them first?" she asked as Shamir pulled her hands away.

"It's all right," said Shamir. "I'm going to stay here for a little while and practice some more. Would you like to join me in the dining hall after that?"

Dorothea gave Shamir a beaming smile. "That sounds like a great idea! I'll just leave you to your archery, then."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay and watch? You might learn something."

"I guess I could stick around for a bit to cheer you on."

Dorothea spent the rest of the morning in one of the chairs behind Shamir and watched as the hunter unloaded her quiver into the remaining targets, marvelling at her accuracy and speed. Dorothea thought that if she was inclined to learn how to swing a sword that fast, nobody on the battlefield would be able to touch her.


	2. You're Not Boring

The lunch hour in Garreg Mach was usually a subdued affair, even more so during the war against "those who slither in the dark". The familiar faces of academy students lining up for their favorite meal were gone, replaced by refugees from the surrounding towns. There were plenty of people to line up to eat, but nobody to talk to. Shamir was ready to wait in line, but she wasn't going to order until one specific person arrived to join her.

"Sorry I'm late!"

Dorothea arrived from the north entrance of the dining hall after changing out of her usual red dress. She was just going out to lunch and didn't want to get any food on it. Shamir was similarly dressed down, wearing only a short-sleeved T-shirt and leather pants.

"Ready, Shamir?" asked Dorothea.

"My stomach certainly is, even if the rest of my body isn't," said Shamir.

Dorothea and Shamir stepped in line behind a young boy and his father who had entered the cafeteria just before Dorothea, both of whom looked like they needed a meal much more than they did. While they waited, they looked up at the menu and saw that it hadn't changed much over the last several years. The only major difference was that they now had to pay for their meals since they no longer technically "lived" on the premises of Garreg Mach with the academy being shut down for wartime.

"I'll let you take the first pick," said Dorothea as she grabbed a handful of coins from her purse. "What would you like?"

"The jerky and meat skewers look good," said Shamir.

"I'm not much of a meat eater, but I won't turn it away if you offered it to me. Fish, on the other hand? No way! Gross!"

Shamir chuckled. "Don't worry, Dorothea. I won't make you eat any fish. I wouldn't be caught dead eating any of that stuff myself. I do like catching 'em, though."

Dorothea pointed to a picture of a strange-looking dish with noodles, diced cabbages, onions, and carrots. "This one looks interesting," she said.

"Noodles with vegetables in them? What a weird combination," said Shamir. "I'm feeling adventurous today. Maybe I'll try some."

"That's the spirit! Want to have some ice cream to go with it?"

"Can't say no to that."

The two women got in line to get their lunches and sat at the table farthest away from the counter. They weren't intentionally avoiding everyone, they both reasoned - it was just that they liked being around familiar faces, and there weren't any others in the dining hall.

"So, Shamir," said Dorothea, "if there aren't any opera houses in Dagda, what do you like to do for fun? You know, when you're not out hunting or doing mercenary work?"

"When you don't have much in the way of localized entertainment buildings," said Shamir, "you learn to make your own fun. I like to play dice games."

Shamir reached into her pocket and dropped a half-dozen ivory dice next to Dorothea's pasta plate. To Dorothea, they looked and felt like regular dice one could buy at any market. "How do you play?" she asked.

"Each player takes three dice and rolls them, then they match up their highest number against their opponent's. Whoever has the higher number gets a point, and the first person to score two points wins the round. If neither player has two points, then you roll the tied dice again until you get a winner."

"Why not just do 'higher total wins'?" asked Dorothea.

"It's more interesting this way," said Shamir. "Any way you play, it's all about luck in the end. Feeling lucky?"

Shamir picked up the dice with her left hand while holding her meat skewers in her right hand, waving both in Dorothea's face to entice her.

But Dorothea wasn't going to bite. Not literally. Not until she finished her delicious peach sorbet first.

"Sure, I'll play," she said, "but only if you eat some of this pasta salad. Seriously, you should try it. It's delicious."

Shamir accepted Dorothea's offer, and gave her a bite of the meat skewer in exchange. "Not bad," they both said.

After the two women cleared their plates, they decided to give Shamir's dice game a spin, playing only to a best-of-five game set to save time for other activities later. Dorothea took the first game two-to-one after a tie-break and swept Shamir in the second. Not willing to let Dorothea outdo her at her own game, Shamir tossed her dice extra-hard in game three, almost sending them flying over the table. Whatever she did seemed to work, as her overzealous dice throw beat Dorothea's more subdued toss by a score of two-to-nothing. It wasn't enough to stop Dorothea from protecting her lead, as the fourth and final game ended in another close two-to-one victory for the songstress.

"All right! I won!" Dorothea cheered.

"Guess it just wasn't my day," Shamir said, shrugging.

"I think it's only fair that I get to pick the next activity, don't you?"

Shamir wiped down her dice with a napkin and stuffed them back into her pocket. "Fair's fair. What are you in the mood for?"

"Would you like to see how far I've progressed since the White Heron Cup?" asked Dorothea, winking at Shamir and leaning slightly on the table.

"Are you asking me to watch, or to participate?"

Dorothea winked again. "A little bit of both."

Shamir hadn't dressed for the occasion. Her boots were too tough to move about with any level of grace, but she was feeling adventurous enough to try anything. She was grateful that Dorothea seemed to genuinely take interest in one of her hobbies, so it only felt right for her to give dancing a shot. "All right," she said. "Chapel or meeting hall?"

"Let's go to the meeting hall," said Dorothea. "It's closer, and I think they have a piano there. You get better sound out of an organ, but I've found that you can be more flexible with tempos on a piano. You can't really dance fast to a church hymn...as much as I've wanted to try."

"You seem to know your stuff when it comes to music, Dorothea. I'm impressed."

Shamir took off one of her archery gloves and extended a hand to Dorothea. "Lead the way."

"With pleasure," said Dorothea.


	3. That's Our Cue

Dorothea led Shamir to the monastery's meeting hall, where a few strangers were chatting among themselves. She overheard them talking about some of the Knights of Seiros returning soon from their latest mission, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she hoped it meant things would get a little less tumultuous outside of the area.

As she expected, there was a middle-aged man sitting behind a grand piano by the door leading to the bridge connecting the meeting hall and the cathedral. He looked like he was about to get up from the piano and go elsewhere as he reached for his songbook before noticing Dorothea and Shamir approaching.

"Hi there!" said Dorothea. "Do you have time to play a couple more songs?"

"Actually," said the pianist, "I was just about to head off to lunch in a few minutes."

"Are you sure you can't stay? I can make it worth your while."

Dorothea reached into her coin purse and placed a 50-gold coin right above the middle-C key.

"Well, I suppose I could stay here for another song or three," said the pianist as he pocketed the shiny coin.

Shamir took a seat at one of the side tables, giving her the perfect view of the center of the hall where she expected Dorothea to put on her show. "I hope you still have some money left over after all this," she said.

"I'll be fine," said Dorothea. "I've got just enough to get through the next day or two."

Dorothea talked with the pianist for a few moments and pointed out a few songs she wanted to play for Shamir and anyone else in the audience.

The hall got quiet for a few moments before Dorothea's first selection started. As the first notes began to play, Dorothea raised her arms in the air, shaking her hands around and bending down to the ground in a deft display of flexibility. When she rose up, she shook and twisted around in smooth, almost serpentine motions, waving and striking poses with every chord hit.

Shamir watched Dorothea's dance with great interest. These were not the moves of someone who had only practiced for an annual school dance. What Shamir was witnessing was a performance by a woman who had watched countless hours of dances and had been waiting for years to show off the techniques she learned. None of it could possibly have been taught within the halls of Garreg Mach.

It was almost sinful to watch given the context, but even then, Shamir couldn't look away. Not when Dorothea had her eyes on _her_ the whole time, not paying any mind to the crowd that slowly gathered in the meeting hall to watch a show to go with the meals they had just finished. Dorothea was the center of attention in that hallowed hallway, and for once, _she_ was commanding it.

As Dorothea struck a final dramatic pose to end the song, the audience gave her a round of applause. Even Shamir, who preferred to move and act in silence, was enthusiastic with her approval, knowing she had made the correct decision to award Dorothea the coveted White Heron Cup.

"Thank you, thank you," said Dorothea. "Now, I hope you'll all get up out of your chairs and dance for this next part. Don't worry if you don't know the lyrics."

Dorothea directed the pianist to start up her second selection, a rousing battle hymn that she remembered hearing around the time she ventured into the Sacred Forest. There was less movement for this number, as Dorothea was trying to sing and dance at the same time and she wanted everyone to hear her clearly.

The lyrics to her second song described a wyvern rider's journey across the skies, seeing the world in all its glory and majesty. Judging by such lines as "_Hold on to me_" and "_I promise you won't fall_", Shamir guessed that the story of the song was being told from the _wyvern's_ point of view, rather than that of the rider.

After the second chorus, Dorothea danced and swayed her way over to Shamir's seat, inviting the hunter to dance with her. Dancing was one thing, but there was no way Shamir was going to sing along. She was having a difficult enough time saving her breath trying to keep up with Dorothea's energetic movements. The songstress had taken her and twirled her around the dance floor, pushing and pulling her back and forth. Daring her to keep up. Enticing her to get closer. Brushing just a little too close for comfort with every spin.

Shamir gripped Dorothea's outstretched hand and let her take over for the rest of the song. The mercenary had no plans to fall...not until _she_ had an opportunity to take control once again.

The song ended with another round of applause, and Dorothea and Shamir staring into each other's eyes, panting heavily.

The pianist paused to give everyone a chance to stand up and compose themselves before playing the final song, an arrangement of the slow dance tune Dorothea remembered from the last pre-war Garreg Mach ball. Shamir removed both of her archery gloves and interlocked her hand between Dorothea's delicate fingers. It was time for her to get serious.

"My turn."

Shamir wrapped her left hand around Dorothea's waist and guided her across the floor.

Slowly. Gently. Methodically. This was more to Shamir's liking.

She took one step backward, and Dorothea stepped forward in kind. The two weren't perfectly in sync, but they danced closely enough to fool everyone else into thinking they were.

"My, my," said Dorothea. "I'm pleasantly surprised, Shamir. And here I was, thinking that you weren't much of a slow dancer."

"I'm just full of surprises," Shamir replied, teasing Dorothea about her definition of 'surprise'.

They switched hands and circled in the opposite direction for about a minute. Dorothea felt her heart pounding. She was still jazzed up from the previous song, and dancing so close to Shamir wasn't helping her keep her pulse down. She could feel Shamir's heart beating rapidly, as well.

When she thought no one was looking, Dorothea slowly leaned in until she was only an inch from Shamir's face. Shamir saw the move coming and pulled back.

"Hey...I've got the lead, remember?"

Shamir knew the rule: neither of them was allowed to "finish" before the song was over, and she was going to make sure Dorothea followed that rule. Dorothea faked a disappointed moan and lowered her arm in sync with Shamir's until they were holding each other's waists.

"Dorothea..."

"Yeah?"

"This day's been pretty fun. A bit wilder than I expected, but I still had fun."

"Me too. Want to do it again sometime?"

Shamir looked around the room, watching the half-dozen other couples in attendance leaning against one another. "Maybe without as many people around."

She started giving Dorothea subtle signals that she was ready for the singer to make her move - a quick squeeze here, a nod there - and Dorothea was quick to pick up on them. With only a moment's hesitation, Dorothea and Shamir came together for a deep, slow kiss to match the slow-building diminuendo of the song from the piano.

"I'd definitely like to do _that_ again sometime," said Dorothea. "That is...if it's okay with you."

Shamir gave Dorothea a smile and whispered, "It's okay," before kissing her again.


	4. Let's Clean Up

The night after performing her song and dance show for Shamir, Dorothea went to bed in her old dorm room. Hers was the only bedroom that was still furnished after everyone else had taken their belongings back home with them. The other dorms were locked tightly, and the other bedrooms on the complex were reserved for Church administration and members of the Knights of Seiros, so she wondered where Shamir would sleep for the night. They had only gone on one date together, but Dorothea already found herself wanting more of Shamir's touch. She wouldn't go as far as to ask Shamir to sleep with her so soon, but there was no denying she found something attractive about being held by a woman with a strong, firm grip.

When Dorothea woke up the next morning, she found a tent pitched in the courtyard outside of the upper level of the first-floor dorms. _This must be Shamir's tent_, she thought.

"Good morning, Shamir!" she called out. There was no answer. "Shamir?"

Dorothea peeked inside the open tent flap, but all she found inside were Shamir's backpack, bow, and quiver.

"Hmm...I wonder where she went."

Dorothea sniffed under her arms and recoiled. She had certainly worked up a sweat singing and dancing around yesterday, and felt like it was time to wash off and get a change of clothes...and perhaps wash some of her old ones, too. Her fancier opera-style dresses would require special care, but she felt she could handle her ordinary clothes by herself with some simple hand-washing.

First things first...she needed to make her way to the spa and bathhouse by the arena.

Dorothea carried her change of clothes with her to the building at the top of the staircase near the arena. There were three doors, two of which led to bathrooms for men and women. The center door led to the communal sauna, which had no restrictions on gender as long as all participants wore towels.

She didn't hear any noise coming from the sauna room - unusual, but not unexpected considering how early it was in the day.

When Dorothea approached the women's bathroom on the left side, she thought she could hear the sound of splashing water.

_Just my luck...it's occupied_, she thought. _Maybe I'll come back later._

"Dorothea?" said a voice from inside. "That you?"

Shamir had beaten her to the punch.

"Uh...yeah," said Dorothea. "I'll just wait here and let you finish."

"It's okay," Shamir said in a reassuring tone.

Dorothea grinned, remembering how Shamir said the same thing the first time they kissed. Dorothea wasn't sure if it really _was_ okay. When she was a student, she never saw more than one person enter the bathroom at a time. The rules were probably more flexible now that she was a young adult. After all, it was Shamir calling her, so maybe she could slip inside for a _few_ minutes...

"You're not getting shy on me all of a sudden after yesterday, are you?"

"No, of course not. Just a second..."

Dorothea opened the door with the pink stained-glass windows and stepped inside, removing her shoes to avoid tracking mud and dirt on the floor. There was a closet next to her as soon as she entered, with shelves full of neatly-folded towels and washcloths, and a large basket on the floor to deposit used towels for drying. She took one of each and tried to step carefully on the floor, as it looked like Shamir's wet footprints were still fresh.

When Dorothea rounded the corner to the washtub area, she saw Shamir removing the last of her clothes and placing them in a pile on the counter behind her, next to a pair of almost identical-looking and loosely-folded dry clothes.

Dorothea blinked twice to make sure she was really seeing what was in front of her. She couldn't see _everything_ Shamir had on display, but the sight of a beautiful, finely-toned naked woman was enough to send her mind and heart racing in all sorts of directions.

How had Dorothea not noticed this before?

She suddenly wished she had spoken to Shamir more often before the war when they were assigned to the same missions. There had been no shortage of opportunities for them to bond and learn all about each other. Now that it was just the two of them, Dorothea certainly planned to use her time to..."bond", even if she was more used to doing so when both sides were still wearing clothes.

"Come on in," said Shamir as she caught Dorothea staring. "Make sure to lock the door behind you."

Dorothea did as Shamir asked. The bathrooms weren't soundproof, but at least there'd be no interruptions, and the stained glass offered enough translucency to let the light in while keeping prying eyes out.

Shamir tested the water temperature a few times before stepping in. There weren't any logs to use as a heat source, so Dorothea figured she liked it cold.

Shamir took a bar of soap and got one of her sponges up to a nice lather before rubbing herself down. Every so often, she would sit up in the tub to scrub the dirt off more of her body, and Dorothea swore Shamir was turning to face her so she could show it off. The look in Shamir's eyes suggested she was enjoying teasing the songstress as much as she was trying to get clean.

"I could use a little help," she commanded.

Dorothea stripped down to her undergarments to make herself comfortable, and then took the stool and sat on Shamir's right side. She took the sponge from Shamir and helped her scrub down some of her harder-to-reach areas, like her back, legs, behind her ears, and the back of her neck. For good measure, Shamir dipped into the pool of water and washed the soap suds off her body, guiding Dorothea and the sponge across some of the areas she already washed. Dorothea picked up on the hint and took her time, slowly moving the sponge across Shamir's body and letting it linger just a bit longer whenever she heard Shamir moan quietly.

Finally, it was time to wash Shamir's hair. Using a different sponge, Dorothea washed the hunter's hair thoroughly, holding her head back so that no soap would get in her eyes. Dorothea figured it was time to do something daring: kissing Shamir while her eyes were closed and her face was upside down. Shamir didn't see it coming, and laughed out loud shortly after their lips met.

"Dorothea, what are you doing?" she asked.

"I don't know...you looked like you were having a lot of fun just now," said Dorothea, "and I thought I'd help you along a little bit."

"In that case, it's probably time for us to switch places."

Dorothea helped Shamir dump out the water from the tub and fill it with fresh water while Shamir dried herself off with two towels, one for her body and one for her head. There wasn't enough time for them to get quality firewood to warm the tub to Dorothea's liking, so she decided to bathe herself in the cold waters just as Shamir did.

Despite the water temperature being less than ideal, Dorothea still felt comfortable. She thought it was because she had someone else there to help scrub her down and wash her long hair. Up until a few minutes ago, she never imagined Shamir to be that "someone".

"It's too bad this tub isn't big enough for two," said Shamir.

"Oh? Why's that?" asked Dorothea.

"It'd save us a lot of time, and we wouldn't have to stand up to do this…"

After Dorothea had washed herself down nice and thoroughly, Shamir leaned in and returned Dorothea's upside-down kiss.

"Oh, Shamir…" Dorothea said with a breathy laugh. "You really _are_ enjoying this, aren't you?"

"It's like I said before, Dorothea: sometimes you have to learn to make your own fun."

After they had finished washing themselves down, the two women dried off and gave their clothes the same treatment using the bucket in a garden behind the bath house. There would be no waiting in line for them to wash their clothes - they both dug into the same bucket of soapy water and scrubbed away, leaving their clothes to hang for a few hours in the hot sun.


	5. Somewhere Down the Road (Epilogue)

News of the Knights of Seiros returning to Garreg Mach arrived, along with one of their messengers delivering separate letters to Dorothea and Shamir. After eating lunch together in the dining hall, they went to Shamir's tent in the courtyard and read their letters.

"Looks like I'll be staying here a little longer," said Shamir. "The Church needs me for another mission. It looks like they're one step closer to finding the enemy's home base."

"That's great news!" said Dorothea. However, her good mood sank after she read the letter addressed to her. "It's too bad I won't be going with you. Edie needs me back at the capital."

"How soon do you have to go?"

"Right away. You know how it is...when the Emperor comes calling, you've got no choice but to answer. Besides, Edie's my friend. I'd feel terrible if I let her down now."

Shamir gathered the equipment from her tent and then went to Dorothea's room to help her pack everything up. Dorothea worried that it would be the last time she ever saw the inside of her old dorm. When they reached the front gate, there was a caravan waiting for her.

"Well...off to Enbarr I go," said Dorothea. "I really enjoyed our little date yesterday, and I hope you did, too."

"I did," said Shamir. "It was nice to take a break from all of the killing."

"Don't I know it. If I never see another demonic beast or Titanus again, it'll be too soon."

The wheels on the caravan started to turn slightly. Dorothea worried that if she didn't hurry and close things up with Shamir, she'd get left behind. Shamir, who also noticed the caravan driver getting impatient, reached into her pouch and handed Dorothea a deck of cards wrapped in a small rope. "Here. I was hoping we'd get a chance to play some more, but I'd like you to have it. You know...so that you don't get bored in your downtime."

"Are you sure? Thank you!" Dorothea took the cards and held them tightly, for she didn't have a pocket or pouch to place them in. She wished she had bought one from the market for herself. "I have something for you, too. I don't know how big you are into fashion, but I think you'd look good in this."

Dorothea removed the silver-lined barrette from her hair and handed it to Shamir. Rather than waste time holding onto it, Shamir clipped the barrette onto her hair and adjusted it so that it wouldn't mess up the part. "Thanks. It'll keep my hair from blowing around in the wind, at least," she said.

"I'm going to miss you, Shamir."

Shamir pulled Dorothea in for one last kiss, brushing and caressing her hair with her fingers. She could still smell a trace of the soap they used from their bath. Whatever it was made of, Shamir thought it smelled amazing. "We'll need to work on your accuracy, then."

Dorothea laughed. "Is that an invitation to another date?"

"I'm sure we can work something out…"

The coachman called for Dorothea to get moving, so she ran to the back seat of the caravan. She waved back to Shamir with a smile on her face, hopeful that they'd get to dance and play together again before the end of the war.

_Edie had better have lots of paper and ink handy...I've got letters to write!_


End file.
